Sam Falkner

Roasted Chicken

Here is how I roast a chicken.

1. Preheat the oven to 450.
2. Wash the chicken, and pat it dry.
3. Put it on a vertical roaster.
4. Coat it with something, e.g. Penzey’s Galena Street Rub.
5. Put it in the oven.
6. After 10 minutes, lower the heat to 375.
7. It usually takes about one hour and fifteen minutes, start to finish.
8. Finishing via foil, towel, and cooler isn’t a bad idea.

motherjones:

Law and order at #OWS. Near the New York Stock Exchange.

(Via @katz)

(via snagglepuss78-deactivated201302)

I must find the time to do this someday. →

Read the article first, but then read the discussion. →

Breakfast Sausage

Here is what I do for breakfast sausage.

• two pounds ground pork
• one tablespoon salt
• one tablespoon pepper
• one tablespoon sage

Mix it up, and store it in those ziplock bags that let you evacuate most of the air.  That’s it.

I get my spices from Penzeys.  Unfortunately, I’ve never found ground pork (or any kind of pork) at the two closest farmers markets, so I get it from the meat counter at Whole Foods.

Bread

I have been using this recipe for bread:

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/classic-100-whole-wheat-bread-recipe

In case King Arthur Flour stops hosting the page, here are the ingredients:

• 8 to 10 ounces lukewarm water*
• 1 3/4 ounces vegetable oil
• 3 ounces honey, molasses, or maple syrup
• 14 ounces King Arthur Premium 100% Whole Wheat Flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast, or 1 packet active dry yeast dissolved in 2 tablespoons of the water in the recipe
• 1 ounce Baker’s Special Dry Milk or nonfat dried milk
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
• *Use the greater amount in winter or in a dry climate; the lesser amount in summer or a humid climate.

To get around the messy parts, I use a small Zojirushi bread machine on the “dough” setting to mix the dough.  Ordinarily, this loaf would be too big for that machine, but not if you use an oven to do the baking.

To bake the loaf, I use a one pound loaf pan.  You bake it at 350℉ for 40 minutes, covering it with aluminum foil after the first 20.

My favorite coffee shop just celebrated their one year anniversary, and my favorite client just sold an essay.

Things seem bad, but they’re not all bad.

Homeopathy →

No more sam.falkner@sun.com

As of today, I can no longer send email from sam.falkner@sun.com.  I was curious about the last email I ever sent from that address, so I checked.  It was a reply, apologizing about not having much in the way of automated test suites for NFSv4 ACLs.

This was the view from my office on the day of the winter solstice.  At the time, the weather was very nice, but the forecast is for winter storms, which will plague us on our drive to Minnesota starting two days later.

Cirrus clouds are very prominent in this scene.  I have always heard that they foretell a coming storm, but I never imagined that it was as predictable as it was laid out in my grade school science book.  There were several jet planes visible just before the photo was taken; not all were leaving contrails.  I remember there were at least four visible at once, before I grabbed my iPhone, but the picture only has the contrails.

What really made this stand out for me was the crossed contrails casting a shadow on the cirrus clouds.  Since my mind was on the weather, wondering what it would mean for our travel, it was at once foreboding and beautiful.